Pierre Cartier bought Fifth Avenue mansion with pearl necklace and $100

Cartier's Mansion On Fifth Avenue Underwent Its Biggest Revamp Ever Just In Time For Its CentenaryFrench jeweller Pierre Cartier defeated some of New York’s most powerful real estate families by using a double-strand pearl necklace and only a $100 payment to secure a six-story Fifth Avenue mansion that is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars.The historic deal was completed in 1917and transferred ownership of the grand Renaissance-style residence at 653 Fifth Avenue from wealthy railroad and steamship heir Morton F. Plant to the French luxury jewellery house.While Gilded Age families such as the Rockefellers and Astors spent millions of dollars building their Manhattan properties, Cartier used something much simpler: The strong desire of Plant’s wife, Maisie Plant, to own a specific pi